YOU'RE INVITED TO GARAGE CON 2011

You’re invited to GARAGE CON 2011, which may turn out to be one of
the dumbest ideas I’ve ever had. I’ll tell you up front that it’s
a glorified garage sale of thousands of my comic books, books, and
related items.

GARAGE CON 2011 will be held on Friday and Saturday, August 26 and
27, from 10 am to 5 pm, in and around my garage at 840 Damon Drive,
Medina, Ohio.  Besides the aforementioned thousands of items being
offered at incredibly low prices, I’ll also be selling copies of my
acclaimed 1000 Comic Books You Must Read (first printings) at $20
each and (fingers crossed) copies of The Grim Ghost #1-3, my first
comic-book writing in over a decade.  If you want, I’ll sign these
Isabella books and comics as well as and any other Isabella-written
items you bring to the sale. Admission is free...because it really
is just a garage sale with a few quirks.

Hoping to have pleasant people to hang out with if nobody comes to
GARAGE CON 2011, I have also invited several of my comics friends
to sell their work at the event.  I’m really hoping lots of comics
fans come to my garage sale because I’d like to stay friends with
the friends I’ve invited.  I am a mass of insecurity at this point.
Just like most of the time.

GARAGE CON 2011 is inspired by two forces of nature.  If I figured
out how to add images to this bloggy thing, you’ll see some photos
of one of those forces in today’s installment.

Nearly two decades in the making, my “Vast Accumulation of Stuff”
(aka “the VAOS”) is the main inspiration.  My stuff - comic books,
books, files, and more - currently occupies my office, a downstairs
bedroom, half of a large basement, almost all of a large off-site
storage unit, and small portions of other rooms.  It’s my goal to
reduce this accumulation by 80% over the next five years, sooner if
at all possible. 

With son Eddie, I cleared out about half of my office.  The yield
from this massive effort was:

over 25 boxes of items for the garage sale;

over 25 boxes of items I’m keeping for the time being until I can
look through them more carefully;

dozens of VHS tapes, mostly anime;

McDonald’s and other fast food restaurant toys;

12 bags of trash, consisting of old files, old letters, and ancient
newspaper clippings I thought I might write about in my nigh-daily
online blogs of the past; and,

dozens of empty boxes I was holding on to because “they’re perfect
for shipping whatever I sell on eBay.”

Every day, I try to go through at least one of the remaining boxes
in the office...and a box apiece from the basement and downstairs
bedroom.  By GARAGE CON 2011, I will have added another thousand or
so sale items.  It’s my sincere belief that anyone who comes to my
garage sale will find lots of things they want at ridiculously low
prices. 

The other inspirational force of nature is my friend Chris Yambar.
Simultaneously existing in Youngstown, Ohio and a number of other
mystical dimensions, Chris is a cartoonist, a fine artist, and an
all-around good guy.  Last year, he held LAWN CON on his own front
lawn, bringing together comics people and other creative types to
sell their work while hanging out with one another.  I’ve invited
Chris to GARAGE CON 2011; he’s invited me to LAWN CON 2011.  Once
either of us is sure we can attend the other’s events, I’ll let you
know here and on Facebook.

I’ll try to keep everyone informed of GARAGE CON 2011 news here, on
Facebook and the Tony Isabella Message Board.. 

If you need to contact me more directly, e-mail me at:

tonyisa@ohio.net

I’ll be back tomorrow with more stuff.

© 2011 Tony Isabella